


In the Corner of Your Mind

by flibbertygigget



Series: The Other 51 [39]
Category: Layton Brothers: Mystery Room, Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: Gen, Multiple Personalities, Potty Prof vs Placid Prof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-23 01:02:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7460523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most of the time it didn't matter.</p><p>Or</p><p>The day after File No. 009.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Corner of Your Mind

Most of the time it didn't matter. Alfendi was normal, of course he was normal. A bit too nervous, of course, and prone to distance people, but all in all he was functional.

Until times like these.

"You know that I am the real one, Layton." Alfendi pressed the heels of his hands into his forehead.

"Not now," he muttered. "There isn't any reason..."

"You're a fake, a sham. And you know what the real joke is?" The poisonous voice in the corner of his mind chuckled as Alfendi shook his head. "They want you, not me. They don't want the real Alfendi Layton. Doesn't it hurt, knowing that they prefer you this way, neutered, locking yourself away in the Mystery Room so that no one has to bear the sight of you-"

"Leave me alone, please," Alfendi begged. He glanced up at the clock. Only a few minutes before Lucy came in, and if she saw him like this...

He didn't blame her for preferring Placid Prof to Potty Prof, as she put it. Even his own father had seemed relieved when they could get through a visit without him threatening to cut out his tongue. But still... Alfendi's mouth curled into a bitter smile. Still, he wished that he didn't have to hide away in fear of chasing away his favorite assistent.

Alfendi could feel Placid (damn it, that girl was rubbing off on him) pounding away at the back of his mind, begging to be set loose, reminding him of how disappointed everyone would be. He huffed. Like he cared, like he had ever cared. Criminals were at least interesting, but other people, "normal" people...

Normal people were like Placid. They could think, occasionally, but they couldn't hold his interest for more than a few seconds. They were so dull and slow that he would snap just to see them squirm, just to see them give any indication that they gave a fuck about him at all.

"Hiya, Prof!" Alfendi jumped as the door opened and Lucy burst in, almost losing grip of his mind in favor of his more civilized counterpart. He turned and she froze. Somehow Lucy was always able to tell which of them was in control. Alfendi hated how, for a split second, he could see a hint of fear or maybe panic on her face, but she quickly composed herself. Good. She'd need that if she was going to continue to be his assistant now.

"Was that ever even a question?" Placid said in the back of his mind. Alfendi smirked. It seemed that he had somehow managed to make the golden boy of the Scotland Yard  _annoyed_.

"Umm... why're you goin' all weird on me now, Prof? There aren't any criminals here, I know that." Alfendi smirked.

"It seems that my more 'placid' counterpart, as you have decided to call him, is finding the real world a bit overwhelming."

"Well, t'at makes sense, I suppose," Lucy said. "Besides, this may be the break I've been hopin' for!"

"What do you mean?" Alfendi said, a bit of bite entering his voice.

"Oh, you know, I was thinkin' that I might want to get to know ya, seein' as we're goin' to be workin' together from now on." Alfendi snarled.

"Where the hell did you get that idea?" he shouted, slamming his fist on the desk. To his surprise, though she fliched, Lucy didn't do the sensible thing and run as quickly as possible.

"Well, I-I been workin' with Placid Prof for a while, and I know how to work with 'im, but you're like a completely different person. You two seem a package deal at any rate, and I'm fixing to keep this job, so..." Lucy smiled and, to Alfendi's surprise, she stepped forward and held out her hand. "Hiya, Prof. My name is Lucy, Lucy Baker, and I've been assigned by the yard to be your new assistant." Alfendi shook her hand, unsure of what else to do.

"Alfendi Layton, but I'm Inspector Layton around the Yard." He hesitated. "There's no need to be formal, though." Lucy smiled.

"So Prof it is! What case have we got today, Prof?" Alfendi was silent.

"Well, what do we have today?" Placid said, and damn it Alfendi could  _hear_ the smirk in his voice.

"Don't pretend that you expected this reaction any more than I did," he thought pointedly, and for good measure he sent Placid's way a few choice memories of people who hadn't been so numb skulled as to stick around the time bomb that was Alfendi Layton.

"Nothing that I would call on your intellectual level," he said aloud, and in the corner of his mind Placid hissed. Alfendi couldn't bring himself to care. If Lucy left like everyone else because of that, well, she was obviously too soft to be a police detective.

"Excuse me!" Lucy said, and for a moment Alfendi expected her to leave. But, no, she stepped closer, trying to intimidate him despite being a head shorter than he was. It was almost laughable. "I reckon I can solve any of them cases as well as the next person! Don't forget, I was the one to figure that Justin was framing you all that time."

"Only due to clues and hints that  _I_ gave you. I had already solved the case, after all," Alfendi said.

"Maybe, but no one was trustin' you, eh? Face it, you'd be in jail right now if it wasn't for me figurin' it all out."

"She has a point," Placid said. Alfendi wished that Placid had a mouth besides his own so that he could threaten to rip his tongue out.

"Fine," he snapped, "but don't expect me to go easy on you like Placid has been. I expect for you to be able to solve these crimes without a ridiculous number of hints." Lucy grinned at him, and Alfendi scowled back.

"Righto, Prof! Just you wait, I'll be the best detective Scotland Yard 'as ever seen!" Alfendi grunted and turned to start up the crime scene machine. It took him a moment to realize that Placid was no longer straining to escape.

"You like her," Placid said, sounding stunned. Alfendi tried to ignore him. "You do, you like her! But you don't like anyone."

"Don't push me," Alfendi thought. "She's a satisfactory assistant, nothing more." Placid hummed contentedly at the back of his mind. "Fuck off."

That Christmas, when Alfendi brought Lucy along to his father's annual, overblown Christmas party, he tried not to remember Placid's words when his father said the exact same thing. He didn't like her. He didn't like anyone.

Then again, the school psychologist had called him a habitual liar.


End file.
